The Parisian Girl The Parisian Girl Yves Saint Lauren Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent (August 1, 1936 – June 1, 2008), was an Algerian-born French fashion designer who was considered one of the greatest figures in French fashion in the 20th century. In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable". Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria, which at the time was a French colony. According to Alice Rawsthorn, his family was among the most prominent in Oran. His father, Charles, a descendant of Baron Mathieu de Mauvières (who officiated at the wedding of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais), was the president of an insurance company and the owner of a chain of movie theatres.

His mother, Lucienne-Andrée (née Wilbaux), the daughter of a Belgian engineer and his Spanish wife, passed her sense of fashion and style on to her son. Yves was the oldest child, born just over a year after his parents' marriage; two daughters, Michèle and Brigitte, followed. Unlike most French children, Yves and his sisters were not directly affected by World War II, as their father was not called up and Algeria was far enough away from France that it was spared the worst of its defeat and occupation. Yves was severely bullied while at school; he once told a reporter, "Whenever they picked on me, I'd say to myself, 'One day you'll be famous'. That was my way of getting back at them." He found a refuge at home, where his parents allowed him to use an empty room to act out performances of plays by Molière and Giraudoux for his family. He eagerly devoured the theatre reviews in the French magazine Vogue, and became fascinated not just by the descriptions of the plays but also by the descriptions of the costumes.

This led him to study the fashion sections of Vogue as well, and soon he was as interested in fashion design as he was in the theatre. In 1950, Yves submitted three sketches to a contest for young fashion designers organized by the International Wool Secretariat. He won third prize and was invited to attend the awards ceremony in Paris in December of that year. While he and his mother were in Paris, they met Michel de Brunhoff, editor-in-chief of the Paris edition of Vogue. de Brunhoff, a kindly man who enjoyed encouraging new talent, was impressed by the sketches Yves brought with him and suggested he eventually consider a course of study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the council which regulated the haute couture industry and provided training to its employees. Yves followed his advice and, leaving Oran for Paris after graduation, began his studies at the Chambre Syndicale, but he found the syllabus frustrating and left after a few months. Later that same year, Yves entered the International Wool Secretariat competition again and won, beating out his friend Fernando Sanchez and a young German student named Karl Lagerfeld.

Shortly after his win, he brought a number of sketches to de Brunhoff who recognized in them close similarities to sketches he had been shown that morning by Christian Dior, a leading haute couturier. Knowing that Dior had created the sketches that morning and that the young man could not have seen them, de Brunhoff sent him to Dior, who hired him on the spot. Although Dior recognized his talent immediately, Yves spent his first year at the House of Dior on mundane tasks, such as decorating the studio and designing accessories. Eventually, however, he was allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection; with every passing season, more of his sketches were accepted by Dior. In August 1957, Dior met with Yves's mother to tell her that he had chosen Yves to succeed him as designer. His mother later said that she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 years old at the time. Both she and her son were surprised when in October of that year Dior died at a health spa in northern Italy of a massive heart attack. Yves found himself at the age of 21 the head designer of the House of Dior.

His Spring 1958 collection almost certainly saved the House from financial ruin; the straight line of his creations, a softer version of Dior's New Look, catapulted him to international stardom with what would later be known as the 'trapeze dress'. It was at this time that he shortened his surname to "Saint Laurent", as the international press found his hyphenated triple name difficult to spell. His Fall 1958 collection was not greeted with the same level of approval as his first collection had been, and later collections for the House of Dior featuring hobble skirts and beatnik fashions were savaged by the press. In 1960 Saint Laurent found himself conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence. Alice Rawsthorn writes that there was speculation at the time that Marcel Boussac, the owner of the House of Dior and a powerful press baron, had put pressure on the government not to conscript Saint Laurent in 1958 and 1959, but reversed course and asked that the designer be conscripted after the disastrous 1960 season so that he could be replaced.

Saint Laurent lasted twenty days in the military before the stress of hazing by fellow soldiers led him to be sent to a military hospital, where he received the news that he had been fired by Dior. This merely added fuel to the fire, and he ended up in Val-de-Grâce, a sadistic French mental hospital, where he was given large doses of sedatives and other psychoactive drugs and subjected to electroshock therapy. Saint Laurent himself traced the history of both his mental problems and his drug addictions to this time in hospital. After his release from the hospital in November 1960, Saint Laurent sued Dior for breach of contract and won. After a period of convalescence Dior and his lover, industrialist Pierre Bergé, started their own fashion house with funding from Atlanta millionaire J. Mack Robinson. The couple split romantically in 1976 but remained business partners.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the beatnik look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, the Le Smoking suit. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first French haute couturier to come out with a full pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) line; although Alicia Drake credits this move with Saint Laurent's wish to democratize fashion, others point out that other couture houses were preparing pret-a-porter lines at the same time; the House of Yves Saint Laurent merely announced its line first. The first of the company's Rive Gauche stores, which sold the pret-a-porter line, opened on the Rue de Tournon in Paris on September 26, 1966. The opening was attended by Yves Saint Laurent, and the first customer was Catherine Deneuve.

He was also the first designer to use black models in his runway shows, and one of the first to use Asian and Pacific Islander models. Many of his collections were received rapturously by both his fans and the press, such as the Spring 1967 collection that introduced the Le Smoking tailored tuxedo suit. Other collections raised great controversy, such as his Spring 1971 collection which was inspired by 1940s fashion. Some felt it romanticized the German Occupation (one Saint Laurent did not himself live through), while others felt it brought back the ugly utilitarianism of the time. The French newspaper France-Soir called the Spring 1971 collection "Un Grand Farce!" During the 1960s and 1970s Saint Laurent was considered one of Paris's "jet set". He was often seen at clubs in France and New York such as Regine's and Studio 54, and was known to be both a heavy drinker and a frequent user of cocaine. When he was not actively supervising the preparation of a collection, though, he spent time at his second home in Marrakech, Morocco.

In the late 1970s he also bought a home in Normandy, near the vacation home Marcel Proust visited as a child and wrote about in Remembrance of Things Past. The pret-a-porter line became extremely popular with the public (if not with the critics), eventually earning many times more for Saint Laurent and Bergé than the haute couture line. However, Saint Laurent, whose health had been precarious for years, became erratic under the pressure of designing two haute couture and two pret-a-porter collections every year, turning more and more to alcohol and drugs. At some shows he could barely walk down the runway at the end of the show, having to be supported by models. After a disastrous 1987 pret-a-porter show in New York City which featured $100,000 jeweled casual jackets only days after the "Black Monday" stock market crash, he turned over the responsibility of the pret-a-porter line to his assistants. Although the line remained popular with his fans, it was soon dismissed as "boring" by the press. In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition.

In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d'Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac. He retired in 2002 and became increasingly reclusive, living at his homes in Normandy and Morocco with his pet French Bulldog Moujik. He also created a foundation with Pierre Bergé in Paris to trace the history of the house of YSL, complete with 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.

Among his muses were Loulou de la Falaise, the daughter of a French marquis and an Anglo-Irish fashion model; Betty Catroux, the half-Brazilian daughter of an American diplomat and wife of a French decorator; Talitha Pol-Getty, who died of drug overdose in 1971; Catherine Deneuve, the French actress; Nicole Dorier, a top model of the House between 1978 and 1983 when she became one of the master's assistants dedicated to organizing his runway shows and then the "memory" of his house when it became a museum, the Guinean-born Senegalese supermodel Katoucha Niane, the daughter of writer Djibril Tamsir Niane; and supermodel Laetitia Casta, who was the bride in his shows from 1997 until 2002. He died on June 1, 2008 of brain cancer at his residence in Paris. According to The New York Times, a few days before he died, Saint Laurent and Bergé were joined in a same-sex civil union known as a "civil pact of solidarity" in France.

He was also survived by his mother and sisters; his father had died in 1988. Saint Laurent's body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Marrakech, Morocco in a botanical garden that he often visited to find influence and refuge. His partner Bergé said during the funeral service: “But I also know that I will never forget what I owe you, and that one day I will join you under the Moroccan palms.” Yves Saint Lauren famously said that "Fashion will not survive without me" and perhaps he was right. It surely is not what it used to be. Posted by Dead Celebrity Money Earners 2009 Top 10 lists money death Top 11 Dead Celebrity Money Earners in 2009 Every year Forbes magazine releases a list depicting the top earning dead celebrities. The eleven deceased individuals on this year’s list grossed approximately $872 million dollars from October 2008 to October 2009. Dead celebrities can earn millions of dollars each year from merchandising and licensing deals, along with sales of music, books, and film.

Falling off of this year's list are several celebrity mainstays, including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Steve McQueen. In addition to name recognition and broad appeal, deceased celebrities offer the marketing community something living entertainers do not, which is peace of mind. They can’t cause a public stir damaging the product. 11. Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is often considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix is one of the most important and influential musicians of his era. After initial success in Europe, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London under circumstances which have never been fully explained. His official cause of death was a Barbiturate overdose. Jimi Hendrix returned to the list of the top-earning celebrities this year, thanks to solid annual record sales and a new publishing deal with Universal after years with Sony. A new catalog licensing deal was also reached with Sony.

In February of 2009, the Hendrix estate was awarded $3.2 million in a trademark infringement case after Seattle businessman Craig Diffenback and Hendrix's brother Leon created a product called Hendrix Electric Vodka without permission of Jimi’s estate, which is controlled by his sister Janie. 10. Michael Crichton Albert Einstein routinely appears in marketing and merchandising campaigns. In 2009, Einstein lent his image to McDonalds and a small bobble-head toy of Einstein appeared in happy meals. It was part of the Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian film promotion. Einstein's name continues to be used to promote Baby Einstein products, a majority Disney-owned venture designed to make infants smarter. Albert Einstein has numerous International licensing deals, including ties with Nestlé and the Toyota Prius in Japan. There is a mall in Germany named Das Einstein. Towards the end of 2009 and in 2010 the scientist's estate has expanded into the videogame and digital arena with a slate of upcoming brain games. 8. Dr.

Seuss John Lennon was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles. Lennon is the second most successful songwriter in Billboard singles chart history after Paul McCartney. He was responsible for 27 number one singles on the U.S. Hot 100 chart as a performer or songwriter. John Lennon took a break from music in 1975, but reemerged in 1980 with a comeback album, Double Fantasy. He was murdered less than one month after its release. He was shot to death by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of The Dakota in New York City. It was a big marketing year for The Beatles. In September of 2009, Electronic Arts and MTV Games released The Beatles: Rock Band, allowing fans to jam along with a virtual version of the band and download additional albums for $17. The Fab Four's music was also repackaged and remastered in a 16-disc box set that went on sale in September. LOVE, the Cirque du Soleil show featuring the group's music, still brings thousands of fans into The Mirage of Las Vegas.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney receive a large percentage of these profits, as they were The Beatles main song writers. John Lennon will continue to make millions of dollars annually. 6. Charles Schulz Charles Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts is considered to be one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium. In 1943, Charles Schulz was drafted into the United States Army and served in World War II. He invented Peanuts in 1950 and the comic strip was first published on October 2. Charlie Brown, the principal character of Peanuts, was named after one of Schulz co-workers at the Art Instruction School. Schulz drew inspiration from his own life while developing the comic strip and its main characters, including Snoopy. Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption. During the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries.

In November of 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Charles Schulz died on February 2, 2000. Peanuts and its title characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy have always made a lot of money in advertising, merchandising, television specials, and DVD releases. In 2009, the cartoon was revisited in a line of New Balance sneakers for kids. However, the majority of Schulz 2009 income was raised when The Peanuts catalog was purchased by Warner Brothers after years with Paramount Pictures. Warner Brothers released many new Charlie Brown shows, including all six of the Peanuts television specials on a single DVD for the first time. 5. J.R.R. Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor. He is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Tolkien has been identified as the father of modern fantasy literature and his writings have inspired many other works of fantasy.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on March 28, 1972. In 1973, he died of a bleeding ulcer at the age of 81. J.R.R. Tolkien is the creator of hobbits and all Middle Earth languages. This has left a lasting impression on The Lord of the Rings franchise. In 2009, the Tolkien estate and publisher HarperCollins reached a settlement with New Line Cinema over alleged unpaid royalties from the Lord of the Rings movies. The agreement was reported to be over $100 million, giving J.R.R. Tolkien a sizable income in 2009. Tolkien also gained book royalties from his vast collection of novels. J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous earning will continue to grow with the release of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit in 2011. 4. Elvis Presley Elvis Presley was an American musician and actor. During the 1950s and 60s Elvis became a cultural icon. He is one of the originators of rockabilly, an up-tempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues.

In 1973, Presley staged the first concert that was broadcast globally via satellite. It was titled Aloha from Hawaii, and was seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Elvis Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. During the 1970s, prescription drug abuse severely compromised Elvis health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42. The official cause of death was a sudden heart attack. Elvis Presley has a marketing team that helps run his estate and he is routinely included on the list of the highest earning dead celebrities. In 2009, Elvis Presley earned $55 million dollars. Elvis earns more than some of the biggest living concert acts, during the same 12 month span, Britney Spears grossed $35 million and Bon Jovi made $50 million. However, unlike Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley doesn’t count music royalties towards his revenue stream. His manager sold the rights to all of the King’s pre-1973 recordings to RCA (Sony) for only $5 million.

Elvis makes the majority of his posthumous money from merchandising and admissions to Graceland. He returned to the Mattel lineup this year with a collectors' edition Jailhouse Rock-themed Barbie doll. Presley is expected to make even more money in 2010 with Graceland’s celebration of 75-years of Elvis. A Las Vegas based Cirque du Soleil Elvis spectacular is also in the final stages of preparation. $90 Million Michael Jackson was one of the most successful and influential music artists of all time. He died on June 25, 2009 from a drug overdose. He was only 50-years-old. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide. Before his death, Jackson had reportedly been administered drugs such as propofol and lorazepam. Prosecutors formally charged his personal physician with involuntary manslaughter. It was estimated that as many as a billion people around the world watched his public memorial service on live broadcast television. In 2009, Jackson's posthumous earnings were bolstered by a merchandising deal and the rights to use his name and likeness in the Sony film This Is It.

In the six months after his death, Michael Jackson sold an estimated 9 million albums worldwide, plus more than 5.5 million digital downloads. Sony shelled out $60 million for the rights to produce This is It, the highly anticipated movie featuring rehearsal footage of what was to be a 50-date concert engagement at London's O2 arena. The $60 million advance was split between Jackson's estate and concert promoter AEG. Jackson's estate also sold some of Michael’s future earnings potential, due to his valuable stake in the Sony/ATV catalog, as well as the publishing rights to his own catalog of music. This brought a large and quick payday for living beneficiaries. Michael Jackson’s estate will continue to make millions of dollars for years to come. 2. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Musical composer (Rodgers) Rodgers and Hammerstein were a well-known American songwriting duo. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, during a time considered the golden age of the medium.

With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein adding the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, were outstanding successes. In all, they garnered thirty- four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Richard Rodgers died in 1972 of chronic illness. He was 77- years-old. Oscar Hammerstein II died in 1960 at the age of 65 of stomach cancer. The pair’s regular catalog licensing fees got a large boost in 2009 from the reported $200 million acquisition by Imagem Music Group of The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization and the rights to the pair's creations. That sale gives Imagem, which is owned by a Dutch pension fund, ownership of musicals like Oklahoma, The King and I, and South Pacific. The ownership of the couple’s individual works were not sold. 1. Yves Saint Laurent Yves Saint Laurent was an Algerian-born French fashion designer who was one of the greatest figures in French fashion during the 20th century. He is one of the most consistently celebrated and influential designers of the past fifty years.

Saint Laurent’s career began in the 1950s when he signed a design contract with Christian Dior. During the 1960s and 1970s Saint Laurent was considered one of Paris's "jet set.” He was often seen at clubs in France and New York, such as Regine's and Studio 54. In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition. In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d'Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac. He retired in 2002 and became increasingly reclusive, living at his homes in Normandy and Morocco with his pet French Bulldog Moujik. Saint Laurent died on June 1, 2008 of brain cancer at his residence in Paris. According to The New York Times, a few days before he died, Saint Laurent was joined in a same-sex civil union known as a "civil pact of solidarity" with a lifelong friend. How did Yves Saint Laurent manage to make over $350 million dollars posthumously in 2009?

It stemmed from the sale of his art collection, which occurred in February of 2009. In the auction, 733 of Saint Laurent’s collectables were sold, including items ranging from paintings by Picasso to ancient Egyptian sculptures. Saint Laurent’s partner Bergé commented that the decision to sell the collection was made because without Saint Laurent "it has lost the greater part of its significance.” After commissions, the profits of the sale were split between the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and a soon-to-be-created philanthropic group aimed at scientific research and the fight against AIDS. Before the sale commenced, the Chinese government tried to stop the sale of two 18th Century bronze Chinese zodiac sculptures, which were stolen from the Old Summer Palace by the French and British Forces during invasion of China in 1860. A French judge dismissed the claim. The sculptures - a rabbit's head and a rat's head - both sold for €15,745,000 ($20,117,073). It was later reported that the bid had been placed by Cai Mingchao, a representative of China's National Treasures Fund who was seeking to repatriate the items back to China.

Henri Matisse's work Cuckoos on a blue and pink carpet broke the previous world record set in 2007 for a Matisse work, selling for 32m Euros. Yves Saint Laurent (designer) : Wikis (The Full Wiki) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Yves Saint Laurent Yves Saint Laurent in the 1950s Born Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent ( French pronunciation: [iv sɛ̃ loʁɑ̃]; 1 August 1936 – 1 June 2008) [1] [2] , was an Algerian -born French fashion designer who was considered one of the greatest figures in French fashion in the 20th century [3] . In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable".

Contents 5 External links Young designer In 1953, Yves submitted three sketches to a contest for young fashion designers organized by the International Wool Secretariat. He won third prize and was invited to attend the awards ceremony in Paris in December of that year. While he and his mother were in Paris, they met Michel de Brunhoff,editor-in-chief of the Paris edition of Vogue magazine. de Brunhoff, a kindly man who enjoyed encouraging new talent, was impressed by the sketches Yves brought with him and suggested he eventually consider a course of study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the council which regulated the haute couture industry and provided training to its employees. Yves followed his advice and, leaving Oran for Paris after graduation, began his studies at the Chambre Syndicale, but he found the syllabus frustrating and left after a few months. Later that same year, Yves entered the International Wool Secretariat competition again and won, beating out his friend Fernando Sanchez and a young German student named Karl Lagerfeld .

[4] Shortly after his win, he brought a number of sketches to de Brunhoff who recognized in them close similarities to sketches he had been shown that morning by Christian Dior , a leading haute couturier. Knowing that Dior had created the sketches that morning and that the young man could not have seen them, de Brunhoff sent him to Dior, who hired him on the spot. Although Dior recognized his talent immediately, Yves spent his first year at the House of Dior on mundane tasks, such as decorating the studio and designing accessories. Eventually, however, he was allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection; with every passing season, more of his sketches were accepted by Dior. In August 1957, Dior met with Yves's mother to tell her that he had chosen Yves to succeed him as designer. His mother later said that she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 years old at the time. Both she and her son were surprised when in October of that year Dior died at a health spa in northern Italy of a massive heart attack. [4] Yves found himself at the age of 21 the head designer of the House of Dior.

His Spring 1958 collection almost certainly saved the House from financial ruin; the straight line of his creations, a softer version of Dior's New Look, catapulted him to international stardom with what would later be known as the 'trapeze dress', which included dresses with a narrow shoulder and flared gently at the bottom. It was at this time that he shortened his surname to "Saint Laurent", as the international press found his hyphenated triple name difficult to spell. His Fall 1958 collection was not greeted with the same level of approval as his first collection had been, and later collections for the House of Dior featuring hobble skirts and beatnik fashions were savaged by the press. In 1960 Saint Laurent found himself conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence .

Alice Rawsthorn writes that there was speculation at the time that Marcel Boussac, the owner of the House of Dior and a powerful press baron, had put pressure on the government not to conscript Saint Laurent in 1958 and 1959, but reversed course and asked that the designer be conscripted after the disastrous 1960 season so that he could be replaced. Conscription, illness, and independence Saint Laurent lasted twenty days in the military before the stress of hazing by fellow soldiers led him to be sent to a military hospital, where he received the news that he had been fired by Dior. This merely added fuel to the fire, and he ended up in Val-de-Grâce , a French mental hospital , where he was given large doses of sedatives and other psychoactive drugs and subjected to electroshock therapy . [5] Saint Laurent himself traced the history of both his mental problems and his drug addictions to this time in hospital. [4] After his release from the hospital in November 1960, Saint Laurent sued Dior for breach of contract and won.

After a period of convalescence Saint Laurent and his lover, industrialist Pierre Bergé , started their own fashion house with funding from Atlanta millionaire J. Mack Robinson. [1] The couple split romantically in 1976 but remained business partners. [6] During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the beatnik look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, the Le Smoking suit. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first French haute couturier to come out with a full pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) line; although Alicia Drake credits this move with Saint Laurent's wish to democratize fashion, [7] others point out that other couture houses were preparing pret-a-porter lines at the same time; the House of Yves Saint Laurent merely announced its line first.

The first of the company's Rive Gauche stores, which sold the pret-a-porter line, opened on the Rue de Tournon in Paris on 26 September 1966. The opening was attended by Yves Saint Laurent, and the first customer was Catherine Deneuve . [4] He was also the first designer to use black models in his runway shows, [8] and one of the first to use Asian and Pacific Islander models. Many of his collections were received rapturously by both his fans and the press, such as the Fall 1965 collection of Piet Mondrian shift dresses and the Spring 1967 collection that introduced Le Smoking tailored tuxedo suit. Other collections raised great controversy, such as his Spring 1971 collection which was inspired by 1940s fashion. Some felt it romanticized the German Occupation (one Saint Laurent did not himself live through), while others felt it brought back the ugly utilitarianism of the time. The French newspaper France-Soir called the Spring 1971 collection "Une Grande Farce!".

[4] During the 1960s and 1970s Saint Laurent was considered one of Paris's "jet set". [7] He was often seen at clubs in France and New York such as Regine's and Studio 54 , and was known to be both a heavy drinker and a frequent user of cocaine. [4] When he was not actively supervising the preparation of a collection, though, he spent time at his second home in Marrakech , Morocco . In the late 1970s he also bought a home in Normandy , near the vacation home Marcel Proust visited as a child and wrote about in Remembrance of Things Past . The pret-a-porter line became extremely popular with the public (if not with the critics), eventually earning many times more for Saint Laurent and Bergé than the haute couture line. However, Saint Laurent, whose health had been precarious for years, became erratic under the pressure of designing two haute couture and two pret-a-porter collections every year, turning more and more to alcohol and drugs. At some shows he could barely walk down the runway at the end of the show, having to be supported by models.

After a disastrous 1987 pret-a-porter show in New York City which featured $100,000 jeweled casual jackets only days after the "Black Monday" stock market crash , he turned over the responsibility of the pret-a-porter line to his assistants. Although the line remained popular with his fans, it was soon dismissed as "boring" by the press. [4] Later life and death In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition. In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d'Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac . He retired in 2002 and became increasingly reclusive, living at his homes in Normandy and Morocco with his pet French Bulldog Moujik. He also created a foundation with Pierre Bergé in Paris to trace the history of the house of YSL, complete with 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.

Among his muses were Loulou de la Falaise , the daughter of a French marquis and an Anglo-Irish fashion model; Betty Catroux , the half-Brazilian daughter of an American diplomat and wife of a French decorator; Talitha Pol-Getty , who died of drug overdose in 1971; Catherine Deneuve , the French actress; Nicole Dorier, a top model of the House between 1978 and 1983 when she became one of the master's assistants dedicated to organizing his runway shows and then the "memory" of his house when it became a museum, the Guinean-born Senegalese supermodel Katoucha Niane , the daughter of writer Djibril Tamsir Niane ; and supermodel Laetitia Casta , who was the bride in his shows from 1997 until 2002. He died on 1 June 2008 of brain cancer at his residence in Paris. [9] According to The New York Times , [10] a few days before he died, Saint Laurent and Bergé were joined in a same-sex civil union known as a " civil pact of solidarity " in France.

He was also survived by his mother and sisters; his father had died in 1988. Saint Laurent's body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Marrakech , Morocco in the Majorelle Garden , a botanical garden that he often visited to find influence and refuge. [11] His partner Bergé said during the funeral service: “But I also know that I will never forget what I owe you, and that one day I will join you under the Moroccan palms.” His funeral was attended by Empress Farah Pahlavi, Madame Chirac, French President and his wife. [12] Sale of art collection In February 2009, an auction of 733 items was held by Christie's at the Grand Palais , ranging from paintings by Picasso to ancient Egyptian sculptures. Saint Laurent and Bergé began collecting art in the 1950s, with Bergé commenting that the decision to sell the collection was taken because without Saint Laurent "it has lost the greater part of its significance," with the a proceeds proposed to being used to create a new foundation for AIDS research.

Before the sale commenced, the Chinese government tried to stop the sale of two 18th Century bronze Chinese zodiac sculptures, which were stolen from the Old Summer Palace by the French and British Forces during invasion of China in 1860. A French judge dismissed the claim. The sculptures - a rabbit's head and a rat's head - both sold for €15,745,000 ($20,117,073) [13] , but it later transpired that the bid had been placed by Cai Mingchao, a representative of China's National Treasures Fund who are seeking to repatriate the items back to China; he claims that he will not pay for them. [14] On the first day of the sale, Henri Matisse 's work Cuckoos on a blue and pink carpet broke the previous world record set in 2007 for a Matisse work, selling for 32m Euros. Auctioneers said the collection could fetch up to 300m euros (£260m). [15] References

Question: Which Algerian-born fashion designer, awarded the rank of Commander of the Legion d'Honneur by Jacques Chirac, died in June 2008?
Answer: YVES SAINT LAURENT